Comedy plays; Misers -- Drama; Molière, 1622-1673 -- Translations into English
MAR. (_to_ CLÉANTE). But you do not know that this consent is no
longer sufficient, and that heaven has given me back a brother
(_showing_ VALÈRE), at the same time that it has given me back a
father (_showing_ ANSELME); and you have now to obtain me from him.
ANS. Heaven, my dear children, has not restored you to me that I might
oppose your wishes. Mr. Harpagon, you must be aware that the choice of
a young girl is more likely to fall upon the son than upon the father.
Come, now, do not force people to say to you what is unnecessary, and
consent, as I do, to this double marriage.
HAR. In order for me to be well advised, I must see my casket.
CLE. You shall see it safe and sound.
HAR. I have no money to give my children in marriage.
ANS. Never mind, I have some; do not let this trouble you.
HAR. Do you take upon yourself to defray the expenses of these two
weddings?
ANS. Yes, I will take this responsibility upon myself. Are you
satisfied?
HAR. Yes, provided you order me a new suit of clothes for the wedding.
ANS. Agreed! Let us go and enjoy the blessings this happy day brings
us.
OFF. Stop, Sirs, stop; softly, if you please. Who is to pay me for my
writing?
HAR. We have nothing to do with your writing.
OFF. Indeed! and yet I do not pretend to have done it for nothing.
HAR. (_showing_ MASTER JACQUES). There is a fellow you can hang in
payment!
JAC. Alas! what is one to do? I receive a good cudgelling for telling
the truth, and now they would hang me for lying.
ANS. Mr. Harpagon, you must forgive him this piece of imposture.
HAR. You will pay the officer then?
ANS. Let it be so. Let us go quickly, my children, to share our joy
with your mother!
HAR. And I to see my dear casket
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[1] An old comic pastoral.
[2] The real hero in Rabelais' 'Pantagruel.'
[3] Frosine professes a knowledge of palmistry.
[4] Old enemies. The Turks took Candia from the Venetians in 1669,
after a war of twenty years.
[5] Molière makes use even of his own infirmities. Compare act i. scene
iii. This cough killed him at last.
[6] A good deal of the mystification is lost in the translation through
the necessity of occasionally putting _it_ for _casket_, and _she_ for
Élise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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